The Nature of Faith, part 4

Therefore it is of faith that it might be according to grace,

so that the promise might be sure to all the seed,

not only to those who are of the law,

but also those who are of the faith of Abraham,

who is the father of us all

(as it is written, "I have made you a father of many nations")

in the presence of Him whom he believed--God,

who gives life to the dead

and calls those things which do not exist as though they did...

Romans 4:16-17, NKJV

Faith is belief.

It is conviction.

It is persuasion.

It is trust and hope and confidence.

Faith is not science or philosophy or politics.

Faith is not opinion.

Faith is not imagination, although some would call it a delusion.

Faith is the substance and reality of hope , the evidence and proof of things unseen.

Faith is a choice.

On a day that is not thoroughly described in Scripture, Abraham made a choice. The Bible says that Abraham heard the voice of God--a voice, we might assume, he had never heard before, belonging to a God he did not worship--that told him to leave his homeland and family and go to a land that God would show him. He was given promises of becoming a great nation, and of being infinitely blessed by both God and man, and of providing a blessing to all the people of the earth. Based apparently upon that revelation, Abraham made a choice; he chose to follow the voice.

In what did he place his faith? In whom did he trust? The Bible shows that Abraham believed in the God who created all that is, who formed the original man from the dust of the ground and fashioned that man to look like Him and to be like Him. Abraham believed in the God of his forefathers, the God that Adam knew personally, that Abel worshiped, that Seth and Enos called upon, that Enoch walked with, that Noah obeyed. How Abraham's family strayed from the true faith to become idol worshipers in Ur of the Chaldees, and how Abraham was restored to that faith, we are not told. What we are told is that Abraham heard the voice, listened to its commands, and made the choice to believe and follow.

And therefore it was accounted to him as righteousness.

But in whom did he believe, and who are we to believe today? The Apostle Paul said that Abraham believed in the One who gives life to the dead and creates by the power of His word. In other words, Abraham believed in the God who can do anything, everything, whatever He pleases.

God brought life to the deadness of Abraham's spirit when he called him from idolatry to serve the One True God and live in newness of life.

God brought life to the deadness of Abraham's and Sarah's aged bodies, enabling them to conceive. God did such a good job on Abraham, that he went on to father six more sons in his old age.

God brought life to the deadness of their hopes and dreams for an heir and a legacy, demonstrating His own faithfulness to His word and His promises, which are faithful and true.

God brought Isaac symbolically back to life when He prevented Abraham from sacrificing him and provided a ram in his stead.

And God will bring life to Abraham again when he is resurrected to walk in eternal life.

God called Abraham the possessor of Canaan, though he never owned anything more than a burial plot for his people.

God called Abraham the father of many nations before he ever fathered a son.

God called Abraham a blessing to the whole world before Abraham ever even followed the Lord!

That's the God I serve today, the God we all can believe in, the God in whom I have placed all of my hope, my confidence, my trust, the God in whom I have put all my faith. He has demonstrated His great faithfulness to me again and again, and I am persuaded that He will continue to be faithful to what He has said.